Day 2!

So the next morning we talked all the kids into going to the "camps" they had, Jake and Fern in a Sesame Street themed camp and Riley in a pirate themed camp. Dan and I headed to the beach (and went kayaking) and then had lunch all by ourselves!! After lunch we thought we'd see if the kids wanted to go to the beach! Here is Dan catching me spying on Jake and Fern when they were doing a rubber ducky hunt with Ernie! ;)
Fern was engrossed in an activity, so we picked up Jake first and then went back to the room to patch him up! He had been playing tennis and fallen, resulting in a couple scrapes. Good thing I brought our first aid supplies. On our airplane ride down we were sitting near the Dr. at beaches and his family, we introduced him to Jake and mentioned that he may see him that week. Luckily we did not have to see the Dr. but we did see the nurse. :)
Then we headed over to Pirate's Island to pick up Riley, here I am spying again, but this time I have the camera! It was just at the end of arts and crafts time, he made things with sculpty clay and then colored a lizard named Red. We then picked up Fern and got the kids changed for the beach! (I was serious when I said we spent every day on the beach!
HEY MOM, what is this, it was like purple ice plant and it looked really familiar. It was really pretty too, but it is bugging me that I can't remember where I've seen it before, Grandma's maybe?
Here is Fern and I strolling to the beach!
We stayed to the more unpopulated side of the beach! The beach was great because the shelf is pretty far out so the waves brake out there and just produce small waves here on the shore. Perfect for little explorers!!
Thankfully we had these shirts for the kids with UV protection, Dan and I were wishing for some by the end of the week!
Riley LOVED the water, thankfully we found some sand toys to borrow for the week too!
Rubba, dub, dub, my three babes in the BIG tub! They were more than happy to take a bath every night in this tub!
Fern LOVES Zoe, but not the big Zoe! We took her to a Dancing with Zoe activity and the big (person in it) Zoe freaked her out. So that was our last of those activities, but she loved this little wooden Zoe on the lawn and would hug it every time we walked past! :)

These hammocks are all over and the kids thought they were great and had to try this one out on the way to dinner. After dinner I took the opportunity to catch a few great shots of my cuties!
Beautiful Fern and her island doll, she loves baby dolls!
Riley my tiger!
And my sweet super man!!
Then Riley took a turn with the camera and snapped Dan and I. Yes I let him hold my camera (but only after winding the strap around his neck)!!

More, more, more to come!!!

Day 1!

So you all are probably wondering how in the world we ended up on the Turks & Cacaos Island for a 7 day vacation! Well, it is a long emotional story, in short our pre-planned, pre-approved 10th anniversary trip was canceled last minuet because they did not want to hire a contract pilot. So Dan's boss actually felt guilty, and probably afraid for his life if I got near him so he offered our family an all expenses paid vacation to the Caribbean. So although I took the vacation, I have not been bought off. :)

So here we go!!!! We had a 3hour layover in Charlotte, N.C. it was so pleasant to be in the "South" again, everyone is so friendly! And they had a JAMBA JUICE!!!!!
YUMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!! If you have not been to one I suggest you find one soon!!

We then boarded our plane down to Providenciales, and had an uneventful flight down. Once we got there were were whisked to the Beaches Resort and then whisked past the front desk to the concierge's lounge with tropical drinks in hand! We got to our suite and immediately put on our bathing suits!! We spent a couple hours at the beach and then cleaned up for dinner.
After dinner we went out to watch the Sesame Street Parade, here is pirate Grover!
They also had this band made up of locals (or belongers as they say).

I even got a video so you all could dance to the island beat, if you hear the gal M.C.ing she is saying the name of the band, We Funk. But boy does it sound like she is saying the "weefer band"! Ha Ha!!
Here they are on the main stage!
And the sunset behind us!
The kids just loved this fountain, the stage is down the path behind Fern.
We walked down to the beach after the stage show and enjoyed the shore!
Here are the boys in the sand, we spent most of our time on the beach so get ready for lots of beach photos!!
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Just as a side note, as this was a free vacation we took it, but I am not a "resort" kind of girl. And although it was so beautiful and easy, it just did not sit well. Most "belongers" on the island live in poverty, while the resort life is extreme excess. Plus it is sad to have the same waiter who serves you dinner be the same one who is there to greet you at breakfast the next morning. I have not completely digested it all so you may hear more from me! :)

White Sand & Clear Water - CHECK!

Well, I have been MIA from bloggy land for a great reason!! We were in the Caribbean, on the Turks & Cacaos Island for the past 7 days! Yes I made it 7 days with no internet access, and yes I spent every single one of those days at the beach!

I seriously took 375 photos, so you will see plenty, but we have no food in the house, Dan has the van's brakes taken apart and after 11 1/2 hours of traveling yesterday we got to bed at 2am. So here is one photo to wet your pallet, with more to come!

:)

Happy Memorial Day!!

This morning we got up bright and early to get Riley to his parade post!! Then we hurried over to our friends home to park and walk downtown for the parade! After the parade we went to a ward pool/picnic party we had a great time, but after all these pictures/walking/bickering children, I was not the photographer! SO here is the parade!! Waiting!!! Here is Jake, Fern, Angelica, Ezekiel, Marion, & Bro. V. waiting for the parade to start!!
Yea the color guard is here!! They had a very nice flag ceremony, they are right in front of the city hall building. It was also great to see so many uniforms!!

I thought you all should hear some of the parade with all of these pictures!! I love bands playing patriotic songs, and bagpipes!!
Here are some of the Veterans from our borough! (Yes we are not technically a town, we are a borough!!)
I thought the re-enactors were great!! I know these guy are someone specific, but guiltily I admit I don't know who!
Here are some Civil War re-enactors!
When they shot their muskets Fern jumped and Jake covered his ears! It was really neat thought!!
More Civil War Solders! As odd as this sounds it is strange to see the Civil War monuments up here with Yankee solders on them, It was just so much a part of everyday life in Virginia. You saw confederate monuments everywhere there!

Fern had a great time waving to everyone!! Here is our fire department!!
We have a very high population of Portuguese people here, so this was the Portuguese Club's contribution to the parade. On the truck there were a few men playing music and then behind the truck...
were these dancers! Their costumes were beautiful and it was fun to see them dancing traditional dances!!
We had a couple helicopters do a fly-over, the kids loved that!
This old ladder truck was beautiful, it was neat to see it driving down the road!


Here is Pack 102!!!!
And there is Riley!!! I had the whole side of the street calling his name to get him to turn towards me!!!
He finally did, but hid behind his wave!! :)
Here is Krisana, she is one of my Young Women, and she belongs to the family we walked down with!! She is in the Middle School Band!
And the end, I got a quick shot of my three cuties when we met Riley's Pack at the flag pole! It was a great patriotic parade!!

Happy Memorial Day!

The FUN Continues!!

At least on my blog!! Here are the last of our photos, I decided to jam them all into one post!!

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The libraries around here have these cool things called "library passes" they are passes to get into many different places, museums, national parks, amusement parks, and the ZOO!! So we got to go to the zoo for free!! Here is some of our fun!! Mary and I thought this was the cutest logo we have seen for a zoo, we were looking to see if they had a sign we could take a picture in front of, but alas they did not. :(
When we first pulled up and parked we were welcomed by a peacock strolling by. After we got into the park we saw many peacocks, turkeys, guinea hens, and a few other free roaming birds! We got lucky and saw the peacocks fan their tails a couple of times!!
So then we thought we'd join in!!
Even Dan and I got in on the silly-ness!!
They had this great exhibit of prairie dogs, they had a great big mound. Then there was a tunnel we could go through and these little pop-outs we could be right at eye level with the prairie dogs! I am in one pop out taking a picture of Mary, and Dan &Fern!
Unfortunately this pop-out was too scratched up so my camera kept focusing on them instead of the cuties further out! SO the orange blot on the left is Jake, and then Mary and Novella are in the middle!

We saw quite a few animals, buffalo, wolves, rainforest animals in the rainforest hall, but these were Novella's favorite! There were two river otters who put a good show on! They were swimming all over jumping out and saying hi, wrestling under water, they were hysterical. Novella could have stayed there all day, too bad her cousins like to run!! But you will see no picture of the tigers! After one tried to spray Mary, Novella, Fern and I we moved on quite quickly!!!!!!
Here is our cousin shot! All sitting still, together, for a second!
On our way back out the girls were more awake and ready to smile, so we got more peacock shots!!
And a truly lovely shot of Mary and I!

Novella has a new love, at lest Jake was into sharing!!

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After leaving the zoo we enjoyed our last evening together!

We painted little (wiggly) nails...
Had SUPER yummy burritos that Mary made us, she actually made a SUPER-DUPER yummy breakfast for us too...
then we finished off the night with a fun project Aunt Mary brought! Draw your own plates!!
We all had a great time although everyone on this side thought it was TOO short, I know Ryan would protest that!!
Thanks for coming to visit Aunt Mary and Novella, come back soon!!!